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So You Want to Work on a Farm?

Any curd nerd worth her salt has at some point considered trying her hand at professional cheesemaking. If you want to take the next step, check out smalldairy.com, a relatively new website with resources for people starting and growing their own small dairy. One of the newest pages on the site lists internships, apprenticeships and jobs, free of charge. There are only a few listings there now, but I'm sure it will grow. This page also has a pretty funny paragraph on how crazy the life and work of a cheesemaker can be:

Dairy farming and small-scale processing are some of the hardest jobs you can take on. They require physical and emotional strength, perseverance, patience, flexibility, good observational skills, love of and respect for animals and ability to maintain routines. You may be required to stay up all night, get up in the dark or otherwise interrupt your sleep to check on animals or cheese. You may have to work outdoors in all kinds of weather, you might get really dirty or even splattered with manure. If you work at a creamery you may be required to interact with the public. For some reason, people do it anyway. The benefits and rewards of dairy farming keep many people going in spite of the hardships.